Cap takes more globally than in North America. STOP. American fans shamed by international love for ole winghead. STOP. Fears overseas take would be crap completely unfounded. STOP. Who's laughing now? STOP.

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Doesn't surprise me. I've noticed no correlation between content of a movie and the domestic/foreign BO take. Cap's 50/50 split is very characteristic of big-budget summer blockbuster movies. I wouldn't say it's an unusually good foreign take, but it certainly doesn't indicate that skittishness about the "Captain America" name was justified either.

Here are the correlations I have noticed: big names like Tom Cruise, Johnny Depp and Keanu Reeves amps the foreign BO; more action/splosions and less dependence on dialogue (which might need to be subtitled) also amps the foreign BO; and conversely, the more complication and backstory you have, the more it lowers foreign BO. (see www.boxofficemojo.com for all stats)

So Star Trek XI, with no big names and a complicated backstory, didn't do so hot overseas, proportionate to domestic: 67%/33% domestic/foreign.

Contrast that with The Tourist - no backstory, big stars in Depp and Jolie, plenty of action. 26%/76% split.

Captain America slots into the midrange. No big name stars, some backstory (the first half is almost all talking!), solid action in the second half. The "underdog triumphs" theme has universal appeal. I was actually predicting that it wouldn't do quite as well overseas as it did, maybe more like 55%/45%, so a 50%/50% split is surprisingly good considering its drawbacks that have nothing to do with the movie content.

Domestic/foreign split doesn't mean anything about the quality of a movie, just how well it's calibrated to the global market with the stuff that Hollywood knows works well. When something like Star Trek XI gets made, I'm always kind of surprised, because everyone must realize it's handicapped. But Abrams did a good job overcoming the handicaps as much as possible (it wasn't Star Wars-ized, it was globalized).

I enjoyed the talky first half of Captain America and got kind of restless in the second half - haven't we all seen all the action tropes before? - but I knew that it had to be there for the sake of the overseas take, and I don't begrudge them the need to make a buck.

Makes sense to me. Iron Man 3 and Thor 2 (I hope they don't actually call it that) are already slated for 2013. I can see Cap 2 being Marvel's first movie of 2014, with their second movie that year introducing a new character to lead into The Avengers 2 in (presumably) 2015.

Depending on her reception in Avengers I think Black Widow is a strong possibility.
If not then I could see Marvel wanting to stay close to their Avengers formula but still pursuing a female led film and go with Spider-Woman. They get the best of bot worlds in Avengers tie-in AND a character loosely tied to a property they can't as of yet touch in Spiderman.

If not then I'll take something like Black Panther, Ka-Zar, Man-Thing or Moon Knight!!!

Cap's WWII-era character arc was completed in the first movie, no reason to stick with that era exclusively now (although I love the idea of flashbacks!) The character needs a new modern-day arc. The comics provide plenty of inspiration along those lines.

Depending on her reception in Avengers I think Black Widow is a strong possibility.
If not then I could see Marvel wanting to stay close to their Avengers formula but still pursuing a female led film and go with Spider-Woman. They get the best of bot worlds in Avengers tie-in AND a character loosely tied to a property they can't as of yet touch in Spiderman.

If not then I'll take something like Black Panther, Ka-Zar, Man-Thing or Moon Knight!!!

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I didn't think about Spider-Woman...she would be ideal.

Forgive me if this has been asked before but who owns the rights to Quicksilver and The Scarlet Witch? They started in the X-Men and years later it was discovered they were actually Magneto's children but the two of them, especially Wanda, are best associated with The Avengers. Even if they could use them, they wouldn't be allowed to mention The Magneto connection. They probably can't even say their mutants.

^Probably depends on the story they are telling and whether or not they would fit that story.

Then again, given how much care, currently, Marvel Studios is putting into these adaptations in how closely the characters mirror their comic counterparts (generally speaking), they might just omit Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch altogether given their direct connections to the X-Men.

Then again again, they could just use the "We're meta-humans!" and ignore their parents.

This is assuming, of course, that 20th Century Fox doesn't own the rights to the characters.

Just got the Captain America DVD last night. I guess A&P didn't respect the release date. The single disc DVD is pretty bare bones though. Not much interesting as for the extras.

Actually liked the movie better the second time. Great vibe, good casting, I still enjoyed the slow build to becoming Cap.

The biggest flaws with the film still has to be Red Skull. he just isn't fleshed out enough to be anything more than a mustache twirling type villain. Also are they even fighting Nazis? All we ever see is HYDRA. Did the Third Reich just completely fall in 1942 to HYDRA? A little confusing really. I personally interpret Schmidts little rebellion against Hitler as just a way to bargain for more independence in his actions but that he basically just still fought on the Nazis side, but it really isn't clear.